Browsing by Author "Watts, Chris"
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Item Open Access Defining next-generation additive manufacturing applications for the Ministry of Defence (MoD)(Elsevier, 2016-11-02) Busachi, Alessandro; Erkoyuncu, John Ahmet; Colegrove, Paul A.; Drake, Richard; Watts, Chris; Martina, Filomeno“Additive Manufacturing” (AM) is an emerging, highly promising and disruptive technology which is catching the attention of the Defence sector due to the versatility it is offering. Through the combination of design freedom, technology compactness and high deposition rates, technology stakeholders can potentially exploit rapid, delocalized and flexible production. Having the capability to produce highly tailored, fully dense, potentially optimized products, on demand and next to the point of use makes this emerging and immature technology a game changer in the “Defence Support Service” (DS2) sector. Furthermore, if the technology is exploited for the Royal Navy, featured with extended and disrupted supply chains, the benefits are very promising. While most of the AM research and efforts are focusing on the manufacturing/process and design opportunities/topology optimization, this paper aims to provide a creative but educated and validated forecast on what AM can do for the Royal Navy in the future. This paper aims to define the most promising next generation Additive Manufacturing applications for the Royal Navy in the 2025 – 2035 decade. A multidisciplinary methodology has been developed to structure this exploratory applied research study. Moreover, different experts of the UK Defence Value Chain have been involved for primary research and for verification/validation purposes. While major concerns have been raised on process/product qualification and current AM capabilities, the results show that there is a strong confidence on the disruptive potential of AM to be applied in front-end of DS2 systems to support “Complex Engineering Systems” in the future. While this paper provides only next-generation AM applications for RN, substantial conceptual development work has to be carried out to define an AM based system which is able to, firstly satisfy the “spares demands” of a platform and secondly is able to perform in critical environments such as at sea.Item Open Access Effect of different organic amendments on actual and achievable yields in a cereal-based cropping system(Springer, 2023-02-27) Albano, Xavier; Whitmore, Andrew P.; Sakrabani, Ruben; Thomas, Cathy L.; Sizmur, Tom; Ritz, Karl; Harris, Jim A.; Pawlett, Mark; Watts, Chris; Haefele, Stephan M.Soil fertility is at risk in intensive cropping systems when using an exclusive regime of inorganic fertilisers without returning sufficient organic matter to the soil. Our objective was to evaluate the long-term effects of commonly used organic amendments interacting with different rates of inorganic nitrogen fertiliser on crop yields of winter wheat. Yield data from winter wheat were collected for five seasons between 2013 and 2019 from a continuous field trial based at Rothamsted Research, SE England. Organic amendments (anaerobic digestate, compost, farmyard manure, and straw at a rate of 0 and 2.5 ton C per hectare) and five rates of inorganic nitrogen fertiliser (NH4NO3 at 0, 80, 150, 190, 220 kg N ha−1) were applied to winter wheat grown in an arable rotation. At the same inorganic N rate, grain yields for the different organic amendment treatments (excluding the straw treatment) were statistically similar but significantly greater than the unamended control treatment. The nitrogen rate required for optimum yields tended to be lower in plots receiving a combination of organic amendments and mineral fertiliser. Based on the observed and modelled response functions, organic amendments excluding straw increased maximum achievable yields compared to non-amended controls. The size of the effect varied between seasons and amendments (+4.6 to +19.0% of the control yield), increasing the mean maximum achievable yield by 8.8% across four seasons. We conclude that the application of organic amendments can increase the yield potential in winter wheat substantially over what is achievable with inorganic fertiliser only.Item Open Access Meeting report: risk assessment of tamiflu use under pandemic conditions(Nat Inst of Environ Health Sciences / The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), 2008-11-30T00:00:00Z) Singer, Andrew C.; Howard, Bruce M.; Johnson, Andrew C.; Knowles, Chris J.; Jackman, Simon; Accinelli, Cesare; Caracciolo, Anna Barra; Bernard, Ian; Bird, Stephen; Boucard, Tatiana; Boxall, Alistair; Brian, Jayne V.; Cartmell, Elise; Chubb, Chris; Churchley, J.; Costigan, Sandra; Crane, Mark; Dempsey, Michael J.; Dorrington, Bob; Ellor, Brian; Fick, Jerker; Holmes, John; Hutchinson, Tom; Karcher, Franz; Kelleher, Samuel L.; Marsden, Peter; Noone, Gerald; Nunn, Miles A.; Oxford, John; Rachwal, Tony; Roberts, Noel; Roberts, Mike; Sacca, Maria Ludovica; Sanders, Matthew; Straub, Jürg Oliver; Terry, Adrian; Thomas, Dean; Toovey, Stephen; Townsend, Rodney; Vouivoulis, Nikolaos; Watts, ChrisOn 3 October 2007, 40 participants with diverse expertise attended the workshop Tamiflu and the Environment: Implications of Use under Pandemic Conditions to assess the potential human health impact and environmental hazards associated with use of Tamiflu during an influenza pandemic. Based on the identification and risk-ranking of knowledge gaps, the consensus was that oseltamivir ethylester-phosphate (OE-P) and oseltamivir carboxylate (OC) were unlikely to pose an ecotoxicologic hazard to freshwater organisms. OC in river water might hasten the generation of OC-resistance in wildfowl, but this possibility seems less likely than the potential disruption that could be posed by OC and other pharmaceuticals to the operation of sewage treatment plants. The work-group members agreed on the following research priorities: a) available data on the ecotoxicology of OE-P and OC should be published; b) risk should be assessed for OC-contaminated river water generating OC-resistant viruses in wildfowl; c) sewage treatment plant functioning due to microbial inhibition by neuraminidase inhibitors and other antimicrobials used during a pandemic should be investigated: and e realistic worst-case exposure scenarios should be developed. Additional modeling would be useful to identify localized areas within river catchments that might be prone to high pharmaceutical concentrations in sewage treatment plant effluent. Ongoing seasonal use of Tamiflu in Japan offers opportunities for researchers to assess how much OC enters and persists in the aquatic environment.Item Open Access A review of additive manufacturing technology and cost estimation techniques for the defence sector(Elsevier, 2017-08-08) Busachi, Alessandro; Erkoyuncu, John Ahmet; Colegrove, Paul A.; Martina, Filomeno; Watts, Chris; Drake, Richard“Additive Manufacturing” (AM) is a promising technology which will provide major advantages to Defence Support Service providers, given its ability of delocalised manufacturing near the point of use. The technology is gaining increasing interest due to its disruptive potential. AM groups together a wide range of different approaches which have the ability to convert a 3D file into a physical product by depositing layer upon layer of material. AM is still under development and considered an immature technology. This immaturity provides high level of uncertainty around key indicators such as time and cost. These indicators represent also key decision variables to evaluate AM and compare it with traditional manufacturing. This review paper represents an investigation of existing knowledge on AM and aims to present to the reader the various AM approaches with a detailed focus on the most applicable technologies to Defence Support Services. The paper is structured as follows, firstly the various technologies of AM and their economic aspects are presented, secondly the cost modelling techniques are investigated and finally a discussion is carried out. The contribution of this paper is to present to Defence Support Service stakeholders the various AM technologies and cost modelling techniques for measuring the product or service cost.